AWARDS & REVIEWS

AWARDS

GOOD LUCK [16mm Feature Documentary]
Director: Ben Russell / DP: Ben Russell / Production: KinoElektron
—National Society of Film Critics Awards, USA Winner Experimental Film Award 2019

NONO, THE ZIG-ZAG KID [Feature Film]
Director: Vincent Bal / DP: Walther van den Ende / Production: BosBros
—The European Film Academy Young Audience Award 2013
—Montréal International Children's Film Festival, Audience Award, Best Feature Film 2013
—Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, Children's Jury, Just Film Award 2013

SONGS OF THE UNDERWORLD [Dance Film]
Director & Choreographer: Nicola Balhuizen Hepp / DP: Chris Fawcett / Production: Sjouke Cappendijk
—Best Experimental Award at the 2016 Underexposed Film Festival in Rock Hill (South Carolina), USA.
—Audience Choice Award 2016 at the Sans Souci Festival of Dance Cinema in Boulder County (Colorado), USA.
—Best Experimental Short Award at the Alternative Film Festival 2017 in Toronto, Canada.
—Director's Choice Award at the 2017 Utah Dance Film Festival, USA.
—Official Selection at 12 International Film Festivals

A SPELL TO WARD OFF THE DARKNESS [Feature Film]
Director: Ben Russell and Ben Rivers / DP: Ben Russell and Ben Rivers / Production: Rouge International
—New:Vision Jury Prize, CHP:DOX, Copenhagen 2013
—Best Film Award, Torino International Film Fetival 2013
—International Documentary Jury Prize, Torino International Film Fetival 2013

RIVER RITES [16mm Experimental Short Film]
Director: Ben Russell / DP: Chris Fawcett / Production: Dimeshow
—Main Award, Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival 2013
—Best Documentary Short, Chicago Underground Film Festival 2013
—Grand Prize, Media City Film Festival, Ontario 2013

DIVA [Short Film]
Director: Josephine Mackerras / DP: Chris Fawcett / Production: Onearth Productions
—Official Selection in over 60 Film Festivals
—Winner Best Short, Accolade Film Awards 2007
—Winner Best Short, Indie Gathering 2008

LET EACH ONE GO WHERE HE MAY [16mm Experimental Feature Film]
Director: Ben Russell / DP: Chris Fawcett / Production: Dimeshow
—Grand Prize Winner of the 2010 Pamplona Punto de Vista Film Festival
—International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) Award for Best Film of the 2010 International Film Festival Rotterdam
—Best International Feature Film of the 2010 DOCLISBOA International Film Festival
—Torino International Film Festival 2010 Cult Award: True Stories in Cinema
—Grand Prix du Long Métrage Documentaire 2010, Festival International du Film de Belfort
—Prix RED (Réseau d'Echange et d'Expérimentation) 2010, Festival International du Film de Belfort
—Selected among 40 films to represent 40 years of Steadicam at the Film Society of the Lincoln Centre, New York 2017

REVIEWS

LET EACH ONE GO WHERE HE MAY
Director: Ben Russell

Let Each One Go Where He May is made up of thirteen takes of ten minutes each. Two brothers (Benjen and Monie Pansa) are followed with a 16mm Steadicam, an athletic and aesthetic tour de force by cameraman Chris Fawcett. From the outer suburbs of Paramaribo, along forest paths and marketplaces, past illegal goldmines to the jungle, and on a motorboat along the river to a Maroon village, where they take part in the most exciting rituals still performed by these descendants of slaves who once fled the Dutch colonial rulers. The result is a reflection on the history of forced migration and a profound investigation into the cultural characteristics of looking and showing.

Throughout Let Each One Go Where He May, Russell and his performers (including the camera itself) continually mine these paradoxes, between unobtrusive observation and clear choreography, between freedom and determination. Fawcett’s work is some of the most graceful, athletic operation since Tilman Büttner’s in Russian Ark [2002].

One can immediately point to Ernst Karel's sound design (Sweetgrass) and Chris Fawcett's 16mm Steadicam cinematography (Let Each One) as virtuoso performances opening the films to beauty and doubt, an unlikely ethnographic tandem.

The boys are on a pilgrimage from the north of Suriname to the jungles of the country. In the various stories we watch them travel on foot (a lot), by bus and by boat. They walk through jungle, through a city and by a remote mine. Their ultimate destination is a small village where they are to participate in a ritual event. If there is a hero here it is Chris Fawcett the cameraman. To achieve what he did with a Steadicam is pretty bloody amazing. Would have had to have been an almost athletic feat if you ask me.

DIVA
Director: Josephine Mackerras

Diva is one of those very rare beasts, a short film that is both engaging and satisfying. Of course in common with the very best shorts films it is also frustrating as hell as it leaves you aching for a feature length version to find out the whole story. What Diva skillfully and effortlessly includes in its just over 6 minutes running time is: a simple story which immediately draws you in; a roller coaster of genuine and (for a refreshing change) genuinely believable emotions; a superb portrayal of the lead character Vincent; and some hugely impressive cinematography. Added into the mix is a very effective soundtrack, some beautiful steadicam shots of metropolitan Paris, and one of the best chase sequences since the shoplifting chase scene through the streets of Edinburgh in Trainspotting. I have to say that short films are often self-conciously aimed at 'the industry' and, therefore, do not stand alone as a piece of entertainment. Diva, however, avoids that pitfall and that is testament to the considerable skills (and considerable potential) of both director / writer Josephine Mackerras and cinematographer Chris Fawcett. Here is hoping that we get to see much more of their work in the future, and at the very least, an extended short of Diva.